dark_parablesfandomcom-20200216-history
User blog:SwordLily621/Return of the Salt Princess - review, thoughts
This is not meant to be a proper review with an actual structure, more a collection of random thoughts that might be updated as I remember things :) Also, SPOILERS, of course. * first of all, CALLED IT - yes, it was me who wrote that comment, and I was like 80% right, which felt really satisfying :D * technically the game was very well done - fantastic graphics, music, puzzles, HOS, etc. The puzzles in particular were fresh and original and very interesting to figure out. * I was kind of worried when I first clicked "play" and the difficulty screen came up and there was no custom - I usually hate sparkles but like to keep the hint and disable the misclick penalty, so I was torn for a moment before deciding "to hell with it" and clicking "hard". Then the game interface loaded and I was like "wait, doesn't the hint in Blue Tea games usually go dark if disabled? Why isn't this dark, didn't it disable?" and I clicked it and it went all cheeky on me, "that's a convenience I thought I wouldn't need", I loved that instantly :D in the end, I found the lack of a hint wasn't a big deal - I probably spent too much time lingering in places admiring things, so I remembered easily where things were required. Although there was one moment in the middle of the game where I was stuck and had to walk around all available places like three times getting increasingly frustrated before accidentally clicking on top of the tree in Solwood and finding a repeat HOS :D * I know people are already complaining about the lack of jump map, but, honestly, I personally couldn't care less - teleportation usually takes me out of game immersion. If I start using teleportation, that's usually a signal that I'm bored with the game, which definitely wasn't the case here, so I was happy just walking around :D * is it just me or were there tons and tons of text to read? With all the popup notes and little black bar comments on almost everything, and the super long conversations with other characters. Which is fantastic, I honestly love the amount of thought that went into this, and I love backstory... but with my concentration issues, at some point I started reacting like "oh no, another box to open, please don't have a popup note, thank you". I had enough patience for the main game, but in the bonus, I was definitely paying less attention than I would like to, I'll have to focus on that when I replay. * the characters were so unique, detailed and likable! Welcome back, Blue Tea characterisation! Seriously, the last Eipix one, Requiem, has made history as that one DP game where I wasn't emotionally invested in any characters at all. This one? The one where I was charmed by everyone. I'll have to yell about Wanda here somewhere at some point, not now, bc if I start talking about how much I love her and how much I ship her with Nuada right now, I might never publish this post :D oh, honestly, I might just have to yell about all of them, not just Wanda :D *so happy* * there was real intrigue until the very end. So often fairytale HOPA games use the formulaic plots where the ending and "twists" are completely obvious before you even hit "play", but this is thankfully not usually the case with DP, and especially not with this game. Yeah, I figured the details of H/W/N love triangle a long time ago, but a) that wasn't formulaic at all, that was a very fresh idea for a fairytale story, and b) the game still really surprised me later with introducing the "failed servants" and the alchemy origins of Serafina and Mercy. * Parn! Have you noticed the cage with a sculpture of Parn? That was so awesome! And the Cursery book on the shelf, of course, but the book, I saw back in the beta already. The cage was a wonderful surprise. I'll mention one thing I disliked about the game, too, before I stop for now and publish: * I felt like bonus game parables were... irrelevant? Like, sure, those are beautiful stories, but I would have preferred something about the characters we've met in this game. Like, what was Brigid up to in her 100-year-old travels? Something about H/W/N's families/parents, please? Overall opinion: this is an awesome game :D It's definitely one of my favorite DPs and one of my favorite games I've ever played overall. I'm so, so happy about it. stopping for now, but I have more thoughts which I hope I will later have the time and concentration to type out and update the post, or maybe write a new one :) Category:Blog posts